Freyr said good night and made her way to the cabin she’d dropped her luggage in. As far as she knew, all the sleeping quarters were identical; she had a small bunk, a dining/sitting area, an all-purpose entertainment system and an ensuite bathroom to herself. It was small but cosy. Freyr collapsed on the bed, despite her instinct to unpack and have a shower first. She projected holo-pictures and videos of her family into the air via the entertainment system. They circled above her head like a mobile until she eventually fell asleep.

[hr]
She woke in a dark clearing. Spindly, dead trees presented an impenetrable barrier all around her. Familiar blue-purple veins slashed the sky. A sickly orange light illuminated the clearing from above, revealing two people she recognised instantly. David and Amy, her husband and daughter. Laughing and crying with relief, she ran toward them. 

As she drew closer, David’s body suddenly changed. She could now see a giant insectoid carapace connected to his face. His eyes were pitch black and his mouth was bent into an unnatural, U-shaped smile with too many teeth. A purple tendil, shaped into a serrated blade at the end, circled around her motionless daughter and pressed against her bare throat. She skidded to a halt mid-run.

“Please…” She pleaded, holding her hands out in front of her. “Don’t hurt my daughter.” Other-David tilted his head to the side, moving close to Amy. “You must bring her to me!” His voice was deep and wet, like seabed boulders crashing together. She paused, confused. “What do you mean? I don’t know where she is!” She sobbed.

David growled and the tendril-knife pressed against Amy’s jugular drew back as if to stab the girl through the heart. “No!” she yelled, leaping forward.

In the blink of an eye Amy was in front of her, but instead of hugging her mother she fell to the floor, a sanguine patch spreading across the front of her white dress. She looked down and saw a long dagger in her hand, stained with blood. She screamed with no sound, dropping the dagger to grab her daughter but her legs wouldn’t move and-
[hr]

Freyr woke up instantly upon thudding onto the floor. She quickly rose to her knees, heart pounding, and looked around her cabin. The light suggested it was morning. She couldn’t quite remember what she felt so bad about as she massaged her bruised eye socket.

Freyr washed, got dressed and left her cabin to find everyone was already up. Most of the team had already eaten breakfast and were testing out the new lab. She put on a smile and joined them, temporarily sharing their excitement. She logged into the division’s shared workspace, but couldn’t concentrate at all. After answering a few messages and trying unsuccessfully to focus for about half an hour, she got up and left the lab. 

At first, Freyr had no idea where she was walking. To begin with it just felt good to stretch her legs. After a little while she opened her map of the ship, and one relatively accessible area caught her eye. Setting a waypoint, she descended a few levels and traversed the maze of corridors until she was greeted with a set of blast doors labelled ‘Combat Simulation C-53’.

It was loud inside. Freyr discovered it was a large open space, subdivided into many clearly partitioned boxes. Inside the occupied boxes, she could see a variety of simulations running, from hand to hand fighting to field hacking.

“You lost, Doc?” A muscled soldier asked after turning from the knife-fight he was spectating. “No, I erm...I want to learn how to shoot.” Freyr responded. The man chuckled. “Right you are then, Doc. Come with me.”